Electronic commerce continues to expand rapidly, with a vast and growing population of people going online to shop and purchase goods and services. Within that population are customers who reside in different countries from the merchant. These “cross-border” customers often face several inconveniences and cost issues while shopping cross border, such as increased shipping cost, increased transportation/customs time and confusion, and additional costs related to paying in their non-local currency. For instance, customers who have foreign denominated credit or debit cards, or other payment methods, often have to convert mentally from the merchant's currency to their own currency prior to making any purchase decisions. However, currency exchange rates are not static, but are in movement throughout each trading day. So, the exchange rate commonly fluctuates while the customer is evaluating a purchase and may continue to fluctuate during the purchase process. The customer may not know the true cost of the transaction until receiving a credit/debit card or banking statement from their financial institution.
Also, cross-border transactions typically lack an additional level of transparency because financial institutions generally charge an additional fee for converting the currency for the customer after an online purchase is made. Thus, when making a purchase online, customers are usually uncertain as to the exact conversion rate, any surcharges applied by a credit card company, and any surcharges applied by the customer's bank.
Accordingly, there is a need to improve the cross-border shopping and transaction experience in electronic commerce.